COUNTDOWN
by Tomaria
Summary: Three Japanese Citizens have been taken hostage by an unknown group of terrorists demanding that the Japanese Troops be withdrawn from Iraq in three days time, or the hostages will be burned alive. The hostages? Honda Hiroto, Otogi Ryuji, and Mazaki Anzu.
1. Initiation

**COUNTDOWN**

**--_Initiation_**__

By Tomaria

_Disclaimer: Yu-Gi-Oh! is owned by Takahashi Kazuki-sensei, and I mean no disrespect towards Takato Nahoko, Imai Noriaki, Koriyama Soichiro, or any of the their family or friends. I started this story before I knew who they were, and I do not wish to slander them or Japan._

A/N: I really should finish one story before I start another, shouldn't I? This story was just too compelling though. I know that this could be considered very nihilistic, but I don't mean it to be. It is simply placing Yu-Gi-Oh! characters in a real-life situation.

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             "Breaking news. 3 Japanese citizens are being held hostage by a terrorists group calling themselves Saraya al-Mujahideen. Word has just been passed to the government and prime minister along with a videotape of the captives being manhandled and threatened to be burned alive if Japan's Self-Defense Force is not pulled out of the Samawah area in three days. The Japanese administration has yet to comment on this incident—"

            Ishizu Ishtahl's head snapped around towards the television in her office. As the video played over the air, the director's eyes widened as she saw the three captives, blindfolded and frozen stiff. "Honda-kun… Otogi-kun… Anzu!"

            The phone rang and Ishizu picked it up without taking her eyes of the TV. "Nee-san!"

            Ishizu's eyes were drawn from the startling news to the telephone. "Malik! Are you—"

            "—Ah. Yugi, Jounouchi, and Bakura are here. Rishid went to pick up Mutou-san."

            "He went to visit one of our dig sites, so he would know nothing. But… what happened?" 

            "I don't know. They weren't there when it happened." Malik sighed and Ishizu turned back to the coverage. This couldn't be happened. This _couldn't_ be happening. 

            The line was silent until Ishizu heard a beep on the line; her secretary was calling. "Malik, I have another call, but tell Yugi-tachi I'm heading home now."

            "Un."

            Ishizu switched over to her secretary. "Yes?"`

            "A… Seto Kaiba on the line?"

            "Seto?" Ishizu was surprised the president would call her after she tricked him into showing up to this 'dried up, desert of a country,' as he called it, in the first place. "Put him on. Seto—"

            "—What the hell is going on, Ishizu?" Kaiba Corporation's chairman didn't even give her a chance to explain the situation. He already knew it. "What's happened?"

            "Wakarimasen… wakarimasen." Ishizu shook her head in defeat. She looked back at the television which had since moved on to another subject and sighed. "Seto, what do I do?"

            "It's not my problem."

            "You're worried or else you wouldn't have called." Ishizu retorted to Seto's false indifference. 

            "Hmph. Find out what you can and let me know." Seto said seriously, yielding to his concerned disposition. 

            "I will. In the meantime, see what you can do. Japan, the American government, somebody must be willing to help."

             "Ah." Seto snapped his cell phone shut and crossed his arms. 

            "Nii-sama? Are they alright?" Mokuba clutched his brother's armrest and watched as his older brother looked out the window to the sea thousands of feet below.

            "Wakarenai."

            Ishizu stood in her office and closed her eyes. How could this be happening? These sorts of things only happened in Iraq, Israel… those places. Not Egypt. The clock was ticking, the countdown on. They had three days and if they had to do it alone, they would. 

A/N: I swear though, I don't mean for this to be SetoIshi!! It's just that if he were to call and blame anyone, it would be Ishizu. They were staying in her country, her house, and she's part of the government, it's her fault basically. And I realize this is a bit of a stretch, being in Egypt and all, but nobody says it isn't. We don't know where these people are, which makes it more interesting. 

Oh, and I meant to say that this is right right, right, after the last chapter of the manga. I expect they're on summer break during that time, so they'd spend some time in Egypt and do some sightseeing. Right, well, that's all. And wakarenai/wakarimasen means "I don't know" informally and formally respectively. 

--Tomaria

(a.k.a. Aria-chan)


	2. Day 1

**COUNTDOWN**  
**--_Day 1: April 8th, 2004_**  
By Tomaria  
  
  


**DAY 1: April 8th, 2004**  
_The First 24 Hours_  
  
**2:09 PM Makka Time**  
Aljazeera Exclusive: Three Japanese Citizens Taken Hostage  
  
**22:58 JST**  
Terrorist Take 3 Japanese Hostage, Demand SDF Pullout Within 3 Days  
  
**6:25 PM EDT**  
Death Treat to Japanese Hostages  



	3. Day 1: 72 Hours and Counting

**COUNTDOWN**

**--_Day 1: _****_April 8th, 2004_****__**

**_                        72 Hours and Counting_**

By Tomaria

_Disclaimer: All parties involved have rights to their own names and their own feelings. I mean no disrespect to any of the hostages or their families, nor to __Japan__ or the United Sates Either. Takahashi-sensei owns the rights to Yu-Gi-Oh!, as do the other respective parties._

A/N: I originally wanted to write each day as a chapter, but I realized when I hit the 7 page mark that that might not be the best idea. I've broken it down into hours and I think I'll keep it like this. I'm trying to keep as true to the actually happenings as I can, as well as the Jordan and Middle East Free Trade Agreement, so please don't hurt me if they're incorrect. Also, it'll get more interesting once we get past the flashbacks, though I think it's interesting already. Anyways, R&R please!

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**Tuesday, April 6th, 2004******

**7:48 am****, ****Luxor**

            "Oi! Yugi! Let's go!" Jounouchi Katsuya yelled from the orange car they'd rented.

            "Ishizu-san, Malik, Rishid. Thank you for accommodating us." Yugi Mutou bowed before running down the boat's gangplank to his friends.

            "You have the directions to our house, ne?" Malik yelled after the group.

            "AH! We'll see you at the end of the week!" Yugi waved out the window and the car drove off. 

            "Kiwotsukete kudasai. Call us if you need anything." Ishizu returned the wave and received a thumbs-up from the small boy before he pulled himself back into the window.

            "This'll be fun!" Mazaki Anzu unfolded the map like an accordion. "Jounouchi, just go where I tell you to and we won't get lost."

            "I know where I'm going!" Jounouchi glared at Anzu, taking his eyes off the road for just long enough to almost run into an oncoming van. 

            "Jounouchi!" Honda Hiroto grabbed the wheel from behind his friend and saved the group from dieing and the car from becoming nothing more than a twisted heap of metal. In the backseat, Yugi sighed while Otogi Ryuji and Bakura Ryou looked at each other with worried smiles. 

**Thursday, April 8th, 2004******

**2:14 pm****, ****Cairo******

            "Oh! Ms. Ishtahl! I have the report of today's—"

            "—Put it on my desk." The Director of Egypt's Bureau of Archeology interrupted hurriedly as she walked out of her office. "Have any calls put to voicemail. Unless it's Mr. Kaiba; give him my house and cell numbers. And get the prime minister on the phone." She instructed her secretary as she walked out the door. 

            Ishizu walked to her car and pulled out of the parking garage. The traffic would be hell. Another long day in the office would have cause her a quick trip home, her staff suffered because of it, but where everyone else left by 2 for lunch and never came back, it wouldn't be a surprise to see anyone from the Bureau working until 10, 10:30, even on off days. Today was different, though. Her employees would know that something was wrong; the director was actually leaving on time.

            She pulled off the highway into El Maadi's residential district, with its tree-lined roads that in the summer afternoon, sun shining overhead, that Ishizu normally would have driven slowly down, enjoying the shade. This afternoon, she was worried. Anxious, worried, tense, and apprehensive all rolled into one. As she pulled into the waterfront villa's driveway and parked, she waited in the car a second to gather her nerves. She wanted to run into the house and see that everybody was there and that it was all just a big understanding, but on the other hand, she simply wanted to drive back to the office and stay there, hide from the problem and responsibility, and just let the others deal with the situation on their own.

            But she couldn't. It was her problem, her responsibility, her fault. She had brought those kids into the country, she'd let them go off on their excursion unsupervised, and now it was her fault that they were being held hostage as part of a war they had no say in, in a country she had promised their chaperone was perfectly safe. Ishizu opened the door and stepped out of the car confidently. If she was going to confront the children, no, she couldn't call them that, the friends she'd let down, she might as well do so soon. They had three days, and time was of the essence. 

**Tuesday, April 6th, 2004******

**8:29 am****, ****Luxor**

            "There it is. That's the one." Jounouchi drove forward onto the barge that would take them down the Nile to Alexandria and Cairo after a morning of touring the Valley of the Kings. "Just in time!"

            "Number 10?" Anzu asked without looking up from the schedule. 

            "No… number 9." Jounouchi replied hesitantly. 

            "Jounouchi! No! Number 10! Number 10! I told you! Number 10!" The navigator yelled at the driver as the rest of the car only tried to hold their laughs in. That was until the driver realized he couldn't back out because of the crates and boxes behind him; then they all yelled at him.

**Thursday, April 8th, 2004******

**3:08 pm****, El Maadi**

            "Boat 9? That's not a passenger barge. That's a transport barge." Ishizu heard her younger brother saying, and suddenly, something made sense.

            "That boat is the trade barge that's part of the Middle East Free Trade Zone Agreement." Ishizu set her briefcase and folders down on the table as she closed the door. 

            "Ishizu-san!" Yugi jumped up from the couch and the others looked up to see the newest arrival. 

            She smiled weakly at the small boy with rings around his eyes, his worried temperament showing. Ishizu walked over to the couch and sat down, placing a hand on Yugi's shoulder indicating for him to do the same. "Continue please. You got on boat 9 instead and…"

**Thursday, April 8th, 2004******

**9:11 am EST****, ****Washington****D.C.**

            "Wait! Sir! Who are you?! How did you get past security?! Wait! You can't go in there! Sir!"

            Kaiba Seto walked past the surprised secretary without a glance and shoved open the double doors.

            "Wha-What is the meaning of all this?" An even more disgruntled random official asked. 

             "We're having a—Mr. Kaiba!" An executive next to the one already standing and yelling looked up from his papers and motioned to the now vacant seat next to him once he recognized the intruder. 

             "Lawless." Seto said with a curt nod. Richard Lawless, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs. The young president had dealt with the man on more than one occasion, but the Pentagon was a nice change of venue. And Seto was already enjoying the authority he had, not to mention the comfortable chair that the random official had sacrificed to him. "I'll make myself clear gentlemen: The Japanese hostages are to be rescued." He interlaced his fingers and set his elbows on the table. "By you."

**Tuesday, April 6th, 2004******

**2:03 pm****, The ****Nile****River**

            "Gyaahhh! I'm sooooo hungry!!" Jounouchi clutched his stomach and sunk to the floor. 

            "Me too! I could go for a nice juicy stake right now! With a baked potato and sour cream—" Honda was cut off from a weak punch from a currently watering at the mouth Jounouchi. "Yeah, you're right. We shouldn't talk about it. It'll just make us waste away faster."

            Otogi and Yugi shook their heads at the pair. "We've been on this boat for 6 hours, you'd think they'd serve us food." Yugi pointed out.

            "If you'd followed my directions we wouldn't be in this mess, Jounouchi!" Anzu yelled sitting up from where she was lying down in the backseat. 

            "Oi! Minna! Look at this!" Bakura looked into one of the boxes and pulled out a loaf of bread and boxes of cereal. "Hungry?"

            The group looked at him with puzzled expressions, and then looked around the barge. The entire cargo hold was filled with food. 

            "YATTA!" Everyone yelled in unison and went to their own box, but before they could dig in, the cargo hold unlocked and they were bathed in sunlight. Three Arab men weaved through the crates to find six Japanese teenagers frozen in place, each holding a box of food.

**Thursday, April 8th, 2004******

**3:27 pm****, ****Cairo**

            "They thought you were aid workers helping transport food for the troops in the Iraq." Ishizu drew her conclusion solemnly

            Yugi looked up from his lap, where he was uneasily twisting his hands. "Is that what they thought?" 

            The young man had been through situations where his friends', foes', and the worlds' lives had been at stake before and never wavered his resolve. And yet, now he sat here in a world he had never dreamed of being thrown into, of bullets, death, and destruction on a scale completely underrepresented by the media, where his nerves failed him. He was in a position where his magic and monsters couldn't help him, nor could his counterpart, and it was when his friends needed his help the most. Ishizu empathized with him. She had felt the same helplessness when her chance to save her bother from his darkness had been lost. But Yugi had been there, and he managed to do what she couldn't. Now it was her chance to stand firm and repay that debt.

            "I believe so. We've had many Japanese aid workers in the Middle East lately, so they probably thought nothing of you holding boxes for the SDF. I assume they asked you to help them bring the supplies to the Cairo Airport."

            "Ah. We couldn't understand what they were saying, but the motioned for us to follow them with the boxes and we loaded them into a truck. Then Anzu…" Yugi paused when he said her name. His friend from elementary school was somewhere and he couldn't get to her. Ishizu placed a reassuring hand on his arm as he choked on his tears.

            Jounouchi looked at his friend with worry and anger, for himself, then continued the story. "Che… Anzu and Otogi both speak better English than the rest of us, so they went to ask how to get to Cairo, saying that we had to go some place, but the guys didn't understand them as well as we thought they did. He had us follow him in our car, and, Chikusho!" Jounouchi slammed his fist on the table. Everyone watched as the glasses shook and clinked. 

            "Jounouchi-kun…" Bakura, who had been silent up until now, looked guiltily at his friend with regret. "It wasn't your fault."

            "It was! We started laughing again, and fooling around because we realized we were in Cairo again and that he was leading us to downtown. I didn't notice that he had led us to the runway. I just kept following him, and he brought us right into the cargo hold of some big plane. We didn't even notice that's where we were until the car started to slide backwards from going down the runway. I put on the emergency break, and then we realized how much of a problem we'd gotten ourselves into."

            Ishizu's cell phone rang though the silence. "Seto… Alhandullellah."

**Thursday, April 8th, 2004******

**9:46 am EST****, ****Washington****D.C.**

            "Seto."

            "I've just met with the US Defense Department. They're still discussing the situation and are going to be monitoring, but they say they'll help in any way possible." Kaiba Corporation's president pointed to a location on the huge map that had been posted on the wall. Aides bustled behind him, CIA, Defense, and State workers were taking notes and speaking in at least three different languages over their network of connections, all trying to find any clues they could to locate the three hostages. 

            "Yare…  And Japan—"

            "—Refuses to withdraw its forces. Koizumi's putting forth some bullshit about 'not playing into the hands of terrorists.' The man's just scared. Hmph. Doesn't surprise me." Seto heard a television come on, in Arabic. "What's the latest?" He knew Ishizu could translate faster for him than any CIA operative could. 

            "They're just replaying the video again."

            Seto turned around and watched Aljazeera TV on one of the many televisions that had been set up in the now converted headquarters. One of the aides handed him a paper and he read over it quickly. "Cheney's talking with Baker as we speak. Hopefully the dieing man can talk some sense into the stupid one." One of the Japanese translators nearby laughed at Seto's comment, but the chairman simply stared expressionlessly until the assistant cowered back to his work.

            "I hope. We're still going over the events leading up to the abductions. Have you told the US you know the hostages?"

            "No, not yet. They agreed to help, saying they would have offered to do so anyway, but I doubt the decision would have been made so fast. I'm going to stay around and make sure things keep on this pace. We have—"

            "—A little under 70 hours. Get them moving, Seto."

            He shut his cell phone and turned back to the TVs, the one of NHK's broadcast of Chief Cabinet Secretary Fukuda Yasuo's press conference catching his eye. Seto had guessed beforehand the government would turn down the proposal, Koizumi's reign as Prime Minster was surrounded by doing the opposite of what others wanted him to do. He had taken a risk and come to DC first, even though it was on the way to his destination for more than Tokyo was. Still, he wasn't a good businessman for nothing.

**Thursday, April 8th, 2004******

**4:03 pm****, ****Cairo**

            Ishizu closed her cell phone and unclenched the fist at her side. She took a breath before walking back into the living room to tell the group the bad news. "Japan's refused the demands."

            "WHAT?!" All but Malik stood up in protest. The young Arab had just been translating what the captors wanted when he heard it on TV; he knew what was coming. 

            "What about Kaiba-kun? He's back in America?" Yugi asked sitting down again, his voice shaking as he did. 

            "Yes, he's at the Pentagon with the State and Defense Departments who agreed to help."

            "So then they'll find them and rescue them!" Jounouchi said with false conviction, trying to prove to himself that everything will be alright.

            "He didn't mention anything about operations being planned yet, but he did say the Vice President was talking to the US Japanese Ambassador, Howard Baker. Something will be worked out."

            "Something." Malik stood up and turned off the TV in disgust. The three day deadline was appalling, and he couldn't stand his friends not knowing. He walked out of the room, Ishizu's gaze following him, and to the computer in his sister's home office. 

            Bakura placed his glass back on the table and looked out the window behind him. "We ended up in Amman, at least as far as I could tell." Ishizu's eyes and mind were back on the story, however, Jounouchi and Yugi's were not. They looked elsewhere, as if trying to block out the memories of that day.

            "That would make sense. It is unsafe to fly into Iraq itself currently. Most supplies fly into a border country and then enter Iraq via the ground. It would explain why the boxes weren't unloaded onto the plane." Ishizu realized she'd have to explain why this happened to them. They knew the story, but the reasons were beyond their understanding. They weren't used to hearing of the Middle East problems, their own troubles were trouble enough.

            Bakura nodded. "I had been to Jordan once before with my father when he was here in the Middle East on business, so I suggested we found a place to stay. I knew of a place, so we went there."

            "I took us by complete surprise when Bakura told us we were in a different country." Jounouchi leaned forward and put his elbows on his knees. "We thought about staying at the airport, thinking that it'd be easier to find some English or maybe even some Japanese to talk to, but Bakura said it'd be more dangerous. It was hell just getting the car off the tarmac. They wanted all this stupid credentials, I think. That's what Anzu said, so we showed them our passports and Otogi told them we were with the van. The let us go, but the security was eyeing us. I understood what Bakura meant. I mean, we were saying we were aide workers, but we didn't have any papers or anything. It would have been worse if we stayed there."

             "Once we got the hotel, Anzu and Otogi-kun went to try and find someone who spoke English. They found a cab driver who said we should go meet with the SDF in Baghdad." Yugi continued the story, still looking away, this time at the condensation slowly traveling down the drinks on the table. "We were all in the lobby when they came in, and it seemed like a good idea, so we all piled into the car and headed out. It was like 9 or so."

            "10:30." Malik came back into the room, reading a piece of paper.

            "Huh?" Yugi looked up, puzzled.

            "10:30. There's a hour difference between here and Amman. And somebody saw you guys leave at that time." Malik read through the paper, his eyes narrowing as he did. "These bastards."

            "Malik! Stop! They—" Ishizu stood up, knowing what was on the paper her brother was holding.

            "—They deserve to know!" Malik refused to back down. Ishizu nodded, and he turned to Yugi and the others. "This is what the abductors send to Aljazeera: 'We are harboring you all friendship, respect and love but unfortunately you met this friendship with ingratitude and hatred, and provided the American infidel and corrupt army with weapons and soldiers to infringe upon our privacy, desecrate our holy places and lands, spill our blood, violate our honor and kill our children.

            "'So, we had to respond in the same way, and we say to you that you are not welcome after you committed killings. You are not welcome after you declared war against us through this position you adopted. We tell you we have three of your people as captives and we offer you the choice between two things, whether you withdraw your forces from our country and go back home or we will burn them alive and make them food for the fighters who are thirsty for your blood and flesh, and we will do with them more than what we did with the Jews in Fallujah. We give you three days as a grace period since the broadcast of this tape.'"

            Silence pervaded the room as the gravity of the situation set in. They had a little more than 69 hours…

            And counting.

A/N: So? Is it to… Wordy? Boring? What? Let me know, though I'm probably going to keep writing it no matter what you all think! ^_~ I just feel bad that the three captives, Koriyama-san, Takato-san, and Imai-san, have been basically forgotten about now that an American is being held. This is my tribute to you! So, R&R, and I'll try and get the next chapter up soon. I'm on spring break so it shouldn't be too hard. And "kiwotsukete kudasai" means "Be careful"; "Yatta" means "Alright!"; "Che" and "chikusho" are random insults; "Alhandullellah" is Arabic for "Thank god", and "yare" the Japanese for the same. 

--Tomaria

(a.k.a. Aria-chan)


End file.
